Tales on Moscow River--The Holy Fool

While waiting for May 9th celebrations to begin, Simyon, Andrei and I walked along the Moscow River, which seperated us from Red Square. Andrei told us a story of Vasily, the holy fool. In Russian literature, the holy fool is much like those in Shakespeare's plays. He is considered a simpleton by many, and even ridiculous, but often his words are like prophecies, to be fulfilled by the end of the play. Vasiliy was one of these holy fools--he was very kind, but considered stupid by many. Vasily had bought a beautiful fur coat. Two men seeing him walk down the street decided they would trick him into giving it to them. One laid on the ground as if dead, while the other approached Vasily and said that his poor friend had died, and that his body needed to be covered. Couldn't Vasily spare his fur coat for the dead man? Vasily took it off, laid his coat over the man, and said a prayer over the dead man, asking that the angels carry off his spirit, and then left. The man who had played the trick then went over and took the fur coat off his friend. Sure enough, he laid there dead. Thereafter it was said that Vasily could foresee the future.